2007 Hyundai Santa Fe GLS Road Test

Hyundai's recent successes in the sedan segment (Azera and Sonata, both 2006 AJAC winners) fostered in me an appetite to get behind the wheel of their latest offering, a compact to mid-size SUV. Except for name and tailgate handle, the new Santa Fe is nothing like the old version- an SUV I never took seriously due to its bulbous, cartoonish styling that repulsed more than a root canal.